To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with. My contact details are here.

Please do not make a mirror copy of the forums in their current state - things will still change, and some people have requested to be able to edit or delete some of their personal info.

One thing that is on my mind is how to manage money anonymously, so today I would like to discuss the basic methods of it.

My problems:
Banking is not possible if you want an independent account as a minor, you need a parental account. I did not want to bother my parents into opening a bank account as it is my belief that one should manage all their finances independently and it is their responsibility to take care of their financial problems regardless of age.

My Income:
Cash income from tutoring other students at my school.
Parents give me $20 per month
Paypal income from freelancing

My solution

Solution for Cash:
I divide up my cash income into 75% and 25% piles. The 25% is used as cash for real life purchases such as vending machines and concession purchases at school. The rest is liquidated into electronic assets. I buy a visa gift card that is nonreloadable (Does not require name/SSN). These are called gateways by me as they are accepted anywhere on the internet. They can also be used IRL if needed. Once a card is spent to the point below $10, it is used to buy bitcoins to empty the balance. I prefer P2P exchanges because they are more anonymous than large exchanges.

Solution for Paypal
I did not verify my Paypal with my SSN because i did not want to and it would expose the fact that I am under 18. Sp it would be running unverified. Thus, I have to transfer the money as fast as I can. I buy bitcoins or prepaid visa cards on ebay because it supports paypal.

Bitcoin to Cash
Once there is about $100 worth of bitcoins I exchange it for cash. The earnings go to my paypal and I buy another prepaid visa card. The cycle continues again.

Conclusion
Because Paypal does not care if you are handling small amounts of money, you can sign up with fake emails to protect your identity. This cycle is ideal for people dealing with small cash earnings but could be scaled up by using multiple accounts on different platforms.

Note about bitcoins
It is best to store bitcoins on your own PC as web based clients can get hacked.

Disclaimer: This is only a suggestion and I do not endorse the products mentioned in the blog.

Future of Space and the Establishment of Permanent human presence in the Solar System and Beyond
Recently, I have been watching some Kerbal Space Program youtube videos. So I am inspired to post something about the future of space exploration.
What I have found is that the current mode of space launches are not economically viable. The current mode of space launch is mainly government financed. Contractors were contacted to build rockets for a specific launch. Although the rockets have the same plans, they are not built on an assembly line. This causes low rates of launch per month (0.2-2 per month). Even if the rockets are mass produced, the vertical launch nature of these rockets still hinders the preparation time. What is more, almost all launch systems commercially available are not fully reusable. This means that we are building a $100 million + piece of metal that are meant to be discarded after every launch. Yes, SpaceX's falcon is meant to be reusable, however, none of the reused rockets have been launched again. This means that the NASA plan to colonize Mars is entirely BS because the cost will be to prohibitive.
The only way to establish permanent human presence in space, i believe, is to use the current aviation standards for short distance spaceflight (suborbital, earth orbit, moon).
The current aviation standards is that planes are handled mainly by Airlines at commercial airports. By the same standards, in space, Airline equivalent would be a "Spaceline". These can be extensions of current Airlines (Such as Virgin Galactic) or a new company. These Spacelines would operate spaceplanes, or aircraft capable of reaching outer space. On earth, the Spacelines would operate at Spaceports, which can be extensions of existing airport infrastructures. The passengers of the spacelines can be ordinary people wanting a short vacation in space, researchers willing to use zero-g to experiment, or crew members travelling to another mothership parked in orbit. Because the spaceplanes could be launched relatively quickly due to their similarities to airplanes, the costs can be low, perhaps $1000 to $10000 per passenger.
Coming up next -> Needed technological developments